For The Birds

There's a bird that sings to us in the evenings. I think it must be a blackbird.

I'm tone deaf and can't tell one song from another, so my only solid reason for thinking it's a blackbird is because blackbirds are the only songbirds we see round here. 

I appreciate it, anyway...

All the other birds we see are ones that squwak and croak and chatter and coo.

There are fewer gulls than there were last year and the skies are quieter. A local resident writing on the website for local residents notes that he saw two gulls having a go at a torn rubbish sack and last year there would have been ten. I used to find it hard to believe that herring gulls were an endangered species, but now I'm convinced. 

The shortage of gulls is relative. We have nests nearby. We have regular feeders, including one or two who come up on the patio and strut about going "Where's my leftover cat food?" And if we put food out it still gets fought over....

Tennis Action

 Every day on Night Cafe there's a challenge. I usually enter. The prize is a shed-load of credits.

Today's challenge is Tennis Action. I wasn't going to waste credits trying to persuade AI to craft me a tennis player who didn't have extra arms or a tennis racket attached to them in an unusual place so I asked it for a tennis ball soaring over a suburban landscape.  Like so....



Not very exciting, but AI always has problems with bodies doing anything more strenuous that standing still or walking.....

The grand slam season is here again, with Roland Garros kicking off tomorrow. I haven't watched any tennis for a couple of years- and I'm out of touch. I read through the list of fancied contenders and a majority of the names were new to me. Djokovic will be defending his title but Federer is gone and Nadal is carrying an injury and may not show. There was a Golden Age in men's tennis and as Golden Ages do it is coming to an end....